The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus/Antigone

by Sophocles

  863 havoc with our herds A literal translation. The word translated as “herds,” ktemasi, can also refer to what the herds represent economically: wealth. The line could mean something like “love who . . . impoverishes us.” I interpret it with Griffith (257) to mean that erotic power also drives animals into frenzy.

  872–873 wrench men’s minds . . . off course The image is of a chariot overturning on a race course. Love at the intensity the Elders register here made even the ancients unsafe drivers.

  dressed in purple as a bride Throughout her final scene, Antigone conducts herself as if she were preparing for her wedding. Her spoken and sung speeches are dense with allusions, both ironic and plaintive, to a bride’s expectations. Having her appear in a traditional Greek purple bridal costume would visually reinforce Sophocles’ verbal imagery. Indeed, wedding and funeral rituals were deeply associative of each other in Athenian culture; they both signified a similar transition in life. Upon leaving her father’s house, the bride entered the house of another man and perished as a virgin; the dead entered Hades’ house, never to return (Tyrrell and Bennett, 98). Sophocles’ audience would have been attuned to the visual and verbal clues that connected the rituals of marriage and death.

  891 Acheron The river god of a stream that flows through Hades.

  895 River of Pain A literal rendering of the meaning of Acheron.

  901 enter Hades . . . still alive A bit of sophistry on the Elders’ part. Antigone will be imprisoned below ground, thus in proximity to Hades, and she will still be alive. But only the truly dead ever enter the real place. The Elders probably want to emphasize Antigone’s exercise of free choice in committing the act that led to her death sentence.

  903–905 Phrygian stranger . . . Mount Sipylos The Phyrigian stranger, or Niobe, was the daughter of King Tantalos of Lydia. She married Amphion, a king of Thebes, and bore him an equal number of sons and daughters (six of each, according to Homer; other versions of the myth say seven, nine, or ten). After Niobe boasted that she was superior to the goddess Leto, who had only one of each, Leto sent her children, who just happened to be Apollo and Artemis, to kill Niobe’s. Niobe wept for nine days and nights, after which the Olympian gods turned her to a stone face embedded on a cliff on Mount Sipylos (where her father lived). The rain and snow eternally dripping from this stone image were seen as tears. In other versions of the myth, Niobe is a mortal whose boast of being superior to a divinity provoked her punishment. Sophocles’ audience would have recognized his artistic license in making her a god. Tyrrell and Bennett suggest that Sophocles’ purpose was to accentuate Antigone’s own likening of herself to a god, considered by fifth-century Greeks as “boastfulness beyond the pale” (107). Sophocles also could have intended to soften the Leader’s reproach at 914–919, where he calls her godlike fate “no small honor.”

  906 Living rock In Niobe’s case, the metaphor of a body turned to stone alludes to the end of her fertility; in Antigone’s case, the allusion is first to her never-to-be-penetrated virgin body. Seaford interprets the stone in both cases as enclosing them with their natal families (Seaford 1994, 351).

  932 heaped-up rock-bound prison Suggests that Antigone’s “tomb” was not a geologically formed cave but man-made, with earth piled above a hollowed lower chamber.

  933 without a friend Antigone may have admirers in Thebes (as Haimon insists), but none comes forward to grieve for her, presumably out of fear. And of course Antigone no longer considers her sister Ismene to be a philê, or family member, thus she is not a possible mourner.

  943–956 You’ve touched . . . so was I In this lyric, Antigone traces her family curse not to Laios’ original disobedience of Apollo, but to her mother’s incest. (The focus on her mother’s responsibility echoes her opening words to Ismene, “born . . . from that same womb.”) As Segal notes, “kinship as a function of female procreative power [was] embedded in Greek culture” (1998, 183). Throughout this meditation, Antigone sees marriage as a maker of defilement and death, not of children and life (see note to 954–955 and the counterpart to her speech, Oedipus’ howl of pain against marriages in Oedipus the King, 1591–1596).

  954–955 deadly / marriage By marrying Argeia, the daughter of the Argive king Adrastos, Polyneikes gained the military support he needed to attack Thebes; thus his marriage contributed to his death in battle.

  980 pure as far as she’s concerned Kreon assumes his precautions—leaving her a small ration of food and enclosing her in a tomb away from the city—will be enough to evade the defilement of kin murder.

  983–984 My tomb . . . dug from rock The tomb has three identities for Antigone: it is the grave Kreon sentenced her to in punishment for attempting to violate his decree; it is the nuptial bedroom in which she will wed Hades; and it is the hollow in which she will dwell with her parents and dead brothers (Tyrrell and Bennett, 111).

  996–1013 I honored you . . . hollow tomb The authenticity of these lines has been questioned at least since Goethe (in 1827) famously expressed the hope that some classical scholar would prove them spurious. Though many editors and critics have impugned the lines, including Jebb and Winnington-Ingram, confidence in their genuineness has grown in recent years. On the one hand, Lloyd-Jones and Wilson correctly state that objections to them are invariably subjective. On the other hand, contemporary scholars, e.g., Tyrrell and Bennett, and Griffith, have argued that their content conforms to Antigone’s understanding of both herself and the duties to kin as prescribed by divine law. For those producing the play and unconvinced of their authenticity, or who believe including them would divert audience attention into seemingly arid and arcane matters, these lines can be omitted en bloc without disrupting the flow and logic of the remaining lines.

  1009 he pulls me by the wrist After the wedding feast, the bride was traditionally pulled by the wrist (from a table with other women) in a symbolic act of abduction and led away by the bridegroom. Although Antigone imagines Hades as her bridegroom, she seems here to allude to Kreon as the person who prevents her from a marriage on earth. Kreon does not actually lead Antigone away himself but delegates the act to his men.

  1021–1022 I want them / to suffer the pain Antigone’s call for vengeance might be directed at the citizens of Thebes who did not defend her and her cause, but Kreon is her primary target. Not having any philoi left to mourn her or to take vengeance on Kreon, she must depend on the gods, she thinks, and she appeals to them directly.

  1032 Look at me, princely citizens In the moments before she gives herself to Hades, Antigone enacts her own version of anakalyptêria, the bride’s traditional lifting of her veil for the first time among men. The penetration of the men’s eyes was symbolic of her imminent loss of virginity. The gesture of showing her face, as made by a Greek bride whose passivity was taken for granted, was a speechless invitation. But here Antigone acts aggressively, as she did in performing burial rituals for Polyneikes, and calls out to the Elders.

  1036 Danaë Danaë’s father, Akrisios, king of Argos, locked her in a bronze tower because an oracle prophesied that a son of hers would someday kill him. Zeus impregnated her with a shower of gold, and she gave birth to Perseus, who did in fact kill Akrisios accidentally while throwing a discus. Two other mythological characters in this ode were in some way imprisoned; see notes to 1051 and 1081–1084.

  1051 Lycurgos According to Homer’s Iliad (6.130ff.) Lycurgos attacked Dionysos, forcing the young god and his nurses to take refuge in the sea. Soon after Dionysos retaliated by blinding him, Lycurgos died. Sophocles likely knew other versions of the myth, and seems to draw here on the versions of Apollodorus (I. 35) and Hyginus (Fab. 132), in which Dionysos drives Lycurgos mad.

  1066–1068 Black Rocks . . . Bosphoros’ channel The Bosphoros, a narrow strait that joined the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean, divided Asia and Europe; the Black Rocks, over which a swift current passed, have been worn away over the past 2,400 years.

  1071 Ares The god of cruel
bloodshed, considered to be of Thracian origin, was unpopular in the ancient world, and important only in Thebes and perhaps Athens. In mythology he is nearly always portrayed as an instigator of violence or a tempestuous lover; he never develops a moral function, as do Zeus, Apollo, and Dionysos, on his own terms, as the people’s god.

  1073 savage wife of Phineus When Phineus, a Thracian king, cast off his wife Kleopatra—who was the daughter of Boreas, the North Wind—he married Eidothea, who blinded Phineus’ two sons (for reasons unclear in the various versions of the myth).

  1081–1084 a woman unhappy . . . Erektheids The unhappy woman, distraught because her marriage ended, is Kleopatra, the mother of Phineus’ blinded sons. Her mother was Oreithyia, daughter of Erektheus, a king of Athens. Sophocles supposed Kleopatra’s story to be familiar to his audience—although he doesn’t mention it here, she was imprisoned by Phineas—and clearly means to connect her fate to Antigone’s (Jebb 1888, 966n).

  TIRESIAS . . . Lad Thebes’ resident prophet, always accompanied by a young boy, also appears at critical moments in Oedipus the King and Euripides’ Bakkhai.

  1095 questioned the advice This may be a reference to advice Tiresias had given within the last few days concerning how best to divinely protect Thebes against the Argive onslaught (see note to 20). In one version of the myth of the Seven Against Thebes, Tiresias advises Kreon to sacrifice his eldest son, Megareus, mentioned at 1455, in order for Thebes to prevail.

  1096 straight course Tiresias’ use of “straight,” or orthos, echoes Kreon’s repeated use of the word in various forms to characterize his statesmanlike virtues of being upright and on course. His obsession with “straightness” carries over to manipulating people as expertly as one might steer a ship.

  1106–1107 They screeched . . . was drowned out Birds were a major medium of communication between gods and mortals. Because the birds’ angry screeching has made their songs unintelligible, Tiresias interprets the screeching itself as a sign of the gods’ extreme displeasure with Kreon’s recent acts and decrees. See note to 463–464.

  1111 sacrificial fire Tiresias burns a large animal in the god’s honor in order to regain his good will. Hephestos, god of fire, snuffs it out, thus blocking the gesture. At this point, Tiresias’ prophetic drill shifts to examining the inner organs of the animal for useful omens.

  1113–1117 charred thighbones . . . fat enfolding them Tiresias recounts how the sacrifice failed. The offering, probably the meat of an ox, should have gone up in flames when it was ignited—the fragrant smoke ascending like a prayer to the gods above. Instead, the fire smoldered, fat oozed into the ashes, and the gallbladder burst its stench into the air. The “vivid and repulsive description . . . [suggests] the putrescent corpse of Polyneikes” (Griffith, 299).

  1117–1118 attempt / at prophecy failed Neither the animal’s organs nor the sacrifice seeking divine advice yields any readable communications from the gods. Tiresias instead gives Kreon sensible advice of his own, unsanctioned by Apollo.

  1122–1123 city’s altars . . . defiled Because neither Polyneikes nor the Argive soldiers were properly mourned and buried, their dishonored flesh, spread throughout the city by dogs and birds, defiles Thebes.

  1129–1130 keen cries . . . garbled / by . . . thickened blood Tiresias makes a direct connection between the city’s defilement and the gods’ displeasure at the city’s leader.

  1149 silver from Sardis Literally, silver-gold (an alloy).

  1155 men can defile gods Kreon distorts Tiresias’ explanation of his wrongdoing. The point is not whether men defile gods, but that Thebans and Kreon have defiled themselves.

  1191 Furies sent by Hades Presumably the Eumenides, who will punish Kreon for his impiety by attacking his family. See Kolonos, notes to 44–50.

  1227 Delegate this to no one The Leader might be alluding to the fact that Kreon, after boasting that he’d lead Antigone to her tomb himself, assigned his soldiers to the task.

  1231–1232 I who / locked her away will . . . free her At 1218–1219, the Leader advised Kreon to free Antigone from her tomb and then to bury Polyneikes. Kreon makes tending to Polyneikes’ body his first priority. Though going first to Antigone might not have saved her life, Kreon’s mindless reversal of the logical priority further damns him.

  1235–1281 God with myriad names . . . night Just before the worst calamity occurs (or is announced) in each of the three Oedipus plays, the Chorus members sing their appeal for help to Dionysos. This ode presents a vivid picture of the orgiastic worship of the god on Parnassos, a mountain northeast of Delphi that was traditionally sacred to Apollo and the muses. In the winter months, Apollo ceded his shrine at Delphi to Dionysos and his cult; a festival was held every two years and attended by a sanctioned band of maenads. (See Guthrie, 178, 202.)

  1237 Kadmos’ daughter Semele. See Kolonos, notes to 741–743.

  1240–1241 Eleusis . . . Demeter See Kolonos, notes to 749–750 and 1149–1154.

  1254–1255 nymphs of Korykia . . . Kastalia’s fountains Nymphs, young female spirits representing the divine powers of nature, were named specifically for their function or the locale in which they resided. Korykia, a stalactite cavern in Mount Parnassos, was an ancient place of sacrifice. The Kastalia is a stream that flows from the fissure of a high cliff in the mountain.

  1256 Nysa’s sloping hills The mountain where Dionysos was born in some versions of myth. See Kolonos, notes to 741–743.

  1260 Evohoi! A shout made by Dionysos’ worshippers to signal that the god was among them.

  1265–1266 mother / whom the lightning killed Semele.

  1271 howling channel The windy straits between the Greek mainland and the island of Euboea.

  1276 Thyiads A troop of Attic women sent to join the revels of their Delphic sisters in the winter worship of Dionysos.

  1279 Iakkhos A secondary cult name of Bakkhos or Dionysos.

  Messenger From his demeanor, he is an educated and trusted palace servant.

  1283 Amphion and Kadmos Early kings of Thebes.

  Eurydike Kreon’s wife. Within days, she has seen both her sons die as a result of choices made by her husband. Her name means “wide” (eury) “justice/penalty/satisfaction” (dike), which she will fittingly exact from Kreon by leaving him without a female family member to mourn his son (or, when he dies, himself).

  1321 lived through misfortune This could be a reference to the (possibly) sacrificial murder of her son, Megareus, as well as to the events of Oedipus’ reign. See note to 1095.

  1330–1331 Goddess / of Roadways . . . Pluto The goddess Hekate was worshipped at crossroads in the form of a statue with three heads or three bodies. Her mention brings to mind the crossroads where Oedipus killed Laios (see Oedipus the King, 832). Pluto is another name for Hades.

  1344 Am I a prophet? Kreon has unwittingly predicted the tragic outcome of his son’s relationship to Antigone. See note to 721.

  1354–1357 hanging . . . he’d lost to Hades The image of Haimon embracing Antigone around the waist as she hangs from a noose of linen (perhaps made from the veil she lifted in her bridal procession) evokes another Attic wedding ritual that has been depicted in vase paintings. After the groom leads the bride by the wrist from the feast, he lifts her bolt upright into the mule cart that will carry the couple to their nuptial bed. The groom demonstrates his physical strength and dominance over the bride; the bride submits in compliance and dignity by remaining rigidly in the posture (Tyrrell and Bennett, 142).

  1365 spat in his face Literally, ptúsas prosopoi. This gesture reminds us of the crude advice Kreon gave his son at 723–724: “spit this girl out like the enemy she is”; in the Greek, ptúsas osei te dusmene. Sophoclean irony shows Kreon once again as a man whose arrogant behavior comes back to haunt him. The metaphorical usage of 723–724 is not found elsewhere in tragedy but is common in epic and lyric; for this reason, and perhaps because genteel Victorian scholars refrained from translating literally such an ungentlemanly act as sp
itting, Jebb and others of his era focus on the loathing and contempt implicit in the passages. (See Griffith, 236, 338.)

  1366 two-edged Literally, diplos, or “double.” The blade kills Haimon the son and Haimon the potential father. See Oedipus the King, note to 1415.

  1371–1374 he clung to her . . . married at last The “marriage” is consummated with oxeian, literally, “spurts,” of Haimon’s blood, not Antigone’s.

  1425–1426 so much / a loving mother to your son Literally, “the pammêtôr of the corpse,” or, in the scholiast’s understanding, “the mother in all respects.” Pammêtôr connotes the great Mother Earth, Gaia, the true mother of all things. Gaia repeatedly defends her offspring throughout the formative period of the universe against male aggressors who attempt to control her children or usurp her procreativity. Sophocles’ use of the term here draws on Panhellenic myth in which the goddess unleashes her vengeance as a subordinate of Zeus. Eurydike’s violent suicide presents Kreon with the silenced woman he wanted in Antigone, and it gives Antigone the vengeance she sought against Kreon—a silent funeral (Tyrrell and Bennett, 149–51).

  1430–1431 we flood / your harbor The dead arrive in Hades’ realm by a boat that transports them across the River Styx. Kreon imagines his own dead family as a sacrifice made to Hades, but one that fails to win the gods’ goodwill.

  WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED

  Aeschylus. The Complete Greek Tragedies. Trans. Richmond Lattimore, ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.

  Aristotle. Aristotle’s Poetics. Trans. Leon Golden. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1981.